Come Back
by Eleanore-Rigby
Summary: Inuyasha looked at the girl in the casket. He couldn't be sad, no, not when she was standing right beside him, looking down on herself with him. Inukag-Oneshot


Inuyasha looked at the girl in the casket. His bangs hooded the amusement twinkling in his eyes.

He couldn't be sad, no, not when she was standing right beside him, looking down on herself.

"I look like death." she said with a grimace, and then giggled at her joke. He almost smiled back, but he had to be careful, people already thought he was the reason for her death, they didn't need a smile to confirm anything. As she followed him around the room, he gathered that nobody else could see or hear her. He finally smiled as she smelled every flower arrangement along the walls and turned to smile at him.

She was wearing the same white dress as the girl in the casket. He couldn't think of them as the same person anymore, not when she was walking lightly about the room instead of lying still inside the coffin like she was supposed to be.

He noticed that she averted her gaze from her mother and family. Whenever she accidentally looked at them, her eyes would shadow over with pain. But then she would turn her head and catch his eye, and the sadness would be wiped away, replaced with a broad smile.

She sat next to him during the service as the preacher dabbed at his wet eyes. Kagome had grown up in the church, and it pained him to not only lose a member, but a sweet and lively young girl that he had loved dearly as he watched her grow. Every person that had prepared a speech spoke of her warmly and fondly, and almost every speech ended with a sob or two.

The funeral procession wasn't as dismal as one would expect. It was full of stories of Kagome. Of her clumsiness, or kindness, or funny moments where she was just herself. He had had his fair share of each of all of the experiences they spoke of. Kagome buried her face in his chest as they lowered her into the bottomless pit in front of the goshinboku. She didn't want to think of herself trapped in the cold darkness forever, claustrophobic as she was. He wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders, pleased to find that he could still touch her. To anyone on the outside, it looked like he was hugging himself, either trying to ward off the chill in the air, or trying to console his own grief.

Her dress was sleeveless and he wondered if she was cold; it was mid-January after all. He himself, wore warm jeans and a large leather jacket for the modern funeral. She dried her tears on the jacket he offered, but there was no trace of wetness on the places where she wiped her eyes.

The final hymn was sung, Kagome's favorite: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Inuyasha stood next to her in the back so no one would notice his lack of tears. The congregation started singing, and he was surprised when the girl beside him started singing too.

"Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace." he turned his head as he heard her sweet voice carry out the crowd of mourners. He looked in front of him in surprise at the sound of murmurs.

The people all looked about them, telling him that they had heard her too. He was glad they could, it was too beautiful a sound not to be heard by others as well as himself.

"Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise." she had a sweet sadness in her smile as she sang, loud and clear up into the boughs of the ancient tree. The entire mass of people had stopped singing, stopped breathing, to try and hear what they couldn't believe was real.

"Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above." her voice dipped and flowed over and under the winds' steady blowing. The congregation was like a giant, listening statue.

"Praise His name, I'm fixed upon it, name of God's redeeming love!" she repeated the last stanza and smiled at the awed congregation.

The preacher looked at the air in front of him and breathed, "Praise God.."

Kagome giggled, causing her mother to smile and choke back a laugh and a sob at the same time. Before Inuyasha could blink, Kagome was in front of her mother. She raised a hand and instinctively rested it on her mother's face. There was a momentary look of surprise, before a mother's knowledge shined from her eyes and she put her hand on top of Kagome's. They still couldn't see her, but her mother smiled at the secret act of comfort that worked wonders for her grieving spirit.

As the surprisingly warm, invisible hand left her face, she raised her watery eyes to Inuyasha at the back of the crowd. He smiled gently at her and she knowingly smiled back. So he could see her, she thought.

As the service ended, the people slowly trickled back to their cars to depart for home. Inuyasha, Mrs. Higurashi, and Kagome were the only ones that stayed behind. The pastor had hugged Mrs. Higurashi comfortingly and shook Inuyasha's hand in condolence before stalking back to his own car and driving to his parsonage.

Mrs. Higurashi turned her eyes to Inuyasha, and then to the empty space beside him where Kagome was staring back at her curiously. Though all she could see was empty space, she smiled, her eyes watering yet again, "My Kagome, we shall miss you." she said sadly.

"I'll miss you too, Mama." Kagome responded with equal sadness. At her mother's expectant face, she knew that she couldn't hear her anymore. Kagome looked at Inuyasha and he understood her silent request immediately.

"She says, 'I'll miss you too, Mama.'" he interpreted for her. Though it sounded odd being spoken from Inuyasha, Mrs. Higurashi knew where it had come from and the tears spilled down her cheeks. They were deftly wiped away by an unseen hand.

"I love you." Kagome whispered, kissing her mother on the cheek. That last declaration, her mother had heard, and she smiled and said, "I love you, too, my darling."

Inuyasha was unbearably sad at these parting words. This was a final goodbye for both mother and daughter. The mother hugged Inuyasha sincerely and bid him a final goodbye of his own. They had talked earlier and each knew that the well would most likely close-up after he returned to the past for the final time. She gave him one last look before walking slowly back to the house.

Inuyasha remained before the gravestone of his dearest friend and love, buried right next to her ojii-chan. His grave had his date of birth and date of death on it. Damn, if the old geezer wasn't ancient. He had a solemn Bible verse printed above his longevity and a request to rest in peace. Kagome's gravestone was different. It was similar in that it had her longevity carved in the middle, with her full name above it. It was different because of the saying she had carved under the dates of birth and death. He smiled, it was a saying that Kagome had picked out herself.

_Remember me with smiles and laughter._

He felt a hand entwine with his arm and looked at Kagome. She smiled up at him expectantly.

"Are you coming with me?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her and smiling. She giggled again and nodded. He vaguely wondered why this angel wasn't in heaven already but didn't argue, since he was so happy.

He helped her up to the side of the well and looked at her as she turned around to face him, standing on it's edge. She was now slightly taller than he was. He cocked his head to one side, "What?"

She took his face in her ghostly hands and pulled his lips up to hers, "Just in case." she whispered. They shared a kiss and she pulled away with a happy gleam in her eyes, "I love you." she said.

He watched as she turned and jumped down. There was no blue light. He prayed to the God that was so dear to Kagome that she would travel to the past with him when he triggered the mysterious light. Holding his breath, he jumped down and hoped. The blue light engulfed him and when it receded, he looked up at the clear, cold sky above the trees. He looked around him, no one was there. The last shred of hope that he had clung to so desperately was gone, and he fell down into the blackness of despair. He was glad, though, that he had that last happy look to remember her by, her smiles and her laughter. She would never come back now.

He climbed out of the well, the sorrow weighing him down to the point where he knew he would collapse. Miroku's arm braced him as he really started to fall. Sango came to put a hand on his other shoulder. Shippo hopped over and looked at him with sympathetic, watery eyes, sniffling uncontrollably. They had waited at the well to try and be a part of Kagome's ceremony, in any way they could, and that way happened to be by staying near the well. They had been waiting for him to come back, too.

Inuyasha didn't want to try and explain that she had been there, with him, at her funeral.

After all they'd been through, he knew they would believe him, he just didn't want to say it. It had been his last precious moments with Kagome and he didn't want to share them with anybody.

"It's gonna be okay, Inuyasha." the monk said reassuringly. Inuyasha nodded solemly. Even if he disagreed, he didn't want his friends to worry needlessly about him. It would ruin their own start at happiness, now that they were finally getting married and the evil was gone. They didn't need a depressed friend to weigh them down. The solemn procession walked slowly from the clearing and started to enter the forest.

Inuyasha started at a small gasp he heard that came from the direction of the well. He was about to dismiss it as wishful thinking when he heard the monk ask, "What was that?"

Inuyasha's eyes widened and he lifted his head. His ears swiveled back toward where he had just come from. He tentatively sniffed the air and his eyes got even wider, Kagome's scent was coming from behind them.

He raced back to the well with all he had, the previous shred of hope almost ressurected. He stopped in front of it just as his friends ran breathlessly to catch up. He slowly leaned over the well and looked inside, not allowing himself any hope at all for fear it would be crushed again.

From the darkness of the bottom, Kagome smiled up at him in happy disbelief, her hands in front of her as if she had been staring at them, not believing this herself.

His mouth dropped open and she smiled wider, "It worked." she said softly. She suddenly shivered violently, still in her sleeveless summer dress, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, saying in a louder voice, "I'm freezing, come down here and get me!"

Inuyasha didn't need to be told twice. He leapt from the spot where he had been rooted and flew to Kagome, promptly taking off his jacket and laying it across her shoulders. Before she could even slip her arms into the warm leather, he swooped her up into his arms and smiled joyously at her. Her hands came up around his neck and she smiled back as he pressed his forehead against hers, nuzzling her nose.

"I missed you." he said. She smiled softly and kissed his nose, "I wasn't gone for very long."

"You _say_ that." he answered stubbornly. She had been gone for an eternity and a day.

Inuyasha smiled at her once more and jumped out of the well, flying past shocked faces that jerked upwards as they flew up. They landed in the clearing some ways away in the snow and Inuyasha was reluctant to let her down, but she insisted.

At the warm, happy smile from Kagome, Sango threw herself into her friends arms, sobbing tears of joy onto her white dress. Shippo could scarcely less control himself, and as soon as he saw an opening, he torpedo-ed into his surrogate mother's arms.

"Okaa-san!" he cried. He cried her new name repeatedly, the tears squeezing out of his scrunched up eyes as he held onto her for dear life. Kagome held him all the more tightly, he had never called her that before and she felt honored and proud to have a pup of her own like Shippo.

Inuyasha put an uncharacteristically loving hand on the crying kit's head and smiled, "That's right, runt, your Okaa-san's back."

Shippo continued to cry and Miroku somehow found an oppurtunity to embrace her lovingly, while Inuyasha kept a close eye on him.

Kagome had tears of her own running down her face as she told them, "I'm here for good."

Sango let out a relieved and overjoyed sound and hugged her friend and Shippo together. Inuyasha smiled happily, standing next to Miroku, who was just as happy as he was.

As they started to walk back, Inuyasha pulled Kagome to stay in the clearing and though the group noticed, they kept on their way.

Inuyasha stood in front of her, before pulling her into a crushing embrace. Kagome just hugged him back as tightly as she could and whispered that she loved him. He responded by pulling away and crashing his lips onto hers in desperate need and bliss. It was all she could do not to lose herself to the complete ecstasy.

Reluctantly pulling away and laughing at her dejected expression, he told her what he had pulled her aside to say, "Kagome," he began, "Don't ever leave me again." he looked down and shook his head sadly. She put a hand on his face, much like she had with her mother, and moved it up to face her. He looked so forlorn as he continued, "If you left, I don't think I could ever be happy again."

"Same goes for you, mister." she said seriously. The light returned to his eyes and he kissed her again, pulling her as close as he could, but still not close enough.

"Geeze, Oyaji, she needs to breathe!" came a small voice from somewhere to their left. They didn't pull apart but stopped kissing long enough to look at the short kitsune standing there with a smirk on his face. Kagome blushed but Inuyasha held her fast and wouldn't let go. He merely looked skeptically at his pup and said, "I'm sure your other parents did this too." Shippo smiled and nodded enthusiastically, he had been used to the open displays of affection between mates.

"They did this in front of you?" Kagome asked, it was strange, even in her time. Shippo nodded again and catapulted in between them, snuggling in the warm middle of his new parents.

Inuyasha stole one more soft kiss from his-soon-to-be mate and ruffled his pup's hair, "We're glad your back, Kagome." he said again.

--

It turned into fluff, didn't it?

Oh well, I like it anyway :D. It was inspired by a book I just read, only it's entirely different except for the prescence of a ghost. I'm a sucker for happy endings.

And my take on how she came back to life was just that when her spirit went back to the past, well, there, she hadn't died yet. So she was made alive again... Does that help? It was a theory of hers and thats why she said "It worked" when she was in the well.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Review and keep me going!


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